Leadership vacuum /Halsema road gripes

BEHIND THE SCENES
Alfred P. Dizon

Next year, we will have a new president and it may not be Sen. Noynoy Aquino but his cousin -- administration clone Teodoro “Gibo” Teodoro.

Why? By the time Smartmatic machines finish counting votes, it would be Gibo who would top the polls – not Da Anointed Noynoy, Manuel Villar of sipag at tiaga fame, young- man-in-a-hurry Francis Escudero, Wristband Erap Estrada or anyone of those pretenders.

Poll numbers expert Ronaldo Puno, who is Interior secretary would be attesting to the accuracy of the machines. Maybe that is the reason why he is so silent on the bill filed by Bayan Muna Reps. Satur Ocampo, Teodoro Casino and Neri Colmenares who proposed the designation of the Chief Justice as acting President in the event of failure of elections. By then, Garci would be relegated to the Jurassic Age of making magic with numbers with the entry of the brave new world of Smartmatic technology.
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You see, manual counting would be replaced by high speed technology with the bogeymen pulling the strings. After the counting is done, it would be over but the proclamation of Gibo and Puno as vice president. What a party that would be for administration bigshots and lackeys. It would be another wonderful age of magic for the undertakers who can now perform at ease their magic tricks by making incriminating evidence disappear from offices faster than lightning.
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Of course, the powerful people beside the large house along the Pasig River would cry to high heavens everything was done with utmost transparency, honesty and integrity and label the losers cry babies or sour grapes. There could be another Edsa or a civil war after the automated elections but then, again, we are a patient people who can take everything with a grain of salt so that may not happen.

Not really a doomsday scenario. We have been living with doomsday the past many years. To make sure there would be no mayhem, some opposition members are also proposing that Congress convenes five days before June 30 next to select a transition president and vice president in case there is failure of elections.
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They are saying present laws do not address a possible failure of election for the top two offices in the land. To prevent any leadership vacuum resulting from a failure to proclaim the president and vice president, they are saying the Senate can elect from among the 12 non-reelectionist senators a president who will assume a transitory role until the issue is settled.

This will require a joint resolution by the incumbent Congress which will convene only for that purpose for the last time before June 30, according to Sen. Francis Escudero who chairs the Senate committee on constitutional amendments and revision of laws. Under the current succession law, the Senate president is second in line, followed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, with a poker face is not talking but he has a glint in his eye. Who knows what the wily old fox has in his mind.
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People are apprehensive about readiness to fully implement the poll automation law at this time. But the Supreme Court has decided on automation. And the danger of substituting manual, retail cheating with automated, wholesale cheating is a grave concern.
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A counterpart resolution on the same issue has also been filed the House of Representatives by Representatives Teodoro Locsin, Jr. and Edno Joson. Would these bills be consolidated in time for next year’s polls?

This nation has gone weary with so much corruption. And this Banana Republic’s weary people could be cheated once more of their votes next year. But then again, we may just have settle for Clone Gibo and Herr Puno, courtesy of Smartmatic,. In such case, we should be put in the Guinness World of Book Records as “most patient people of the world” while the undertakers laugh their way to the banks.
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Francis Degay of the mayor’s office of Bontoc wrote the following after the series of recent landslides along the Halsema Highway: Why are we not being informed of road conditions? Otherwise we postpone our travel if landslides cannot be cleared in a few hours or in a day. Who shall be liable if we meet accidents? These are the sentiments of most of commuters.

It is a public knowledge that there are ongoing massive implementation of the State of the Nation Address road projects along the stretch of Mt. Data-Bontoc, Bontoc-Kalinga and the Bontoc-Banaue among others. Completion of these projects shall ease the commuters in terms of time element and comfort. The owners of vehicles shall also save money from their usual maintenance expenses.

But hand in hand with various road projects the commuters must be fully informed through the setting up of traffic advisories in all conspicuous areas with basic information such as condition of the road, the exact place where there is a setback, the approximate number of hours or days it takes to clear a landslide, detour information and other important data that guide travelers and drivers.

A regular traveler informed this writer that one time when he started from Bontoc for Baguio at 3 a.m., he was so disappointed due to an excavation on both lanes of the road a few kilometers from Bontoc. He pointed out that if traffic advisory had been established at At-ato or near the Heritage Bar, then he might have postponed his trip at a later time of the day.

And the worst thing, he said, was that the two-lane road was burrowed for the installation of an “imburnal” or the reinforced concrete pipe culvert. It is basic, he said, that one lane must have been opened for commuters. I heard more often, too, that passengers should have brought with them food and water or postponed their trips if they were informed of the actual road conditions.

In previous road erosions most of travelers crossed the treacherous mudslides or trailed the detour through the narrow pathways or along the rice terraces albeit the probability of accidents.